


A Quick Coffee and Sensible Advice

by SaneCharlie



Category: Sentinels of the Multiverse (Card Game)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, I know Sara and Eduardo are dead in canon but canon is wrong, mild fantasising
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 20:51:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11585967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaneCharlie/pseuds/SaneCharlie
Summary: The Wraith has faced monsters and supervillains galore, but isn't quite sure how to cope with romantic attraction. So she calls in an expert!





	A Quick Coffee and Sensible Advice

Maia was aware that she wasn’t a really good friend.

She cared, of course she cared. She’d never met anyone in the heroing business who didn’t care deeply about people – even Expatriette, who seemed perpetually about a day away from snapping and trying to kill the world, behaved that way because she cared. But for Maia, it was hard to take the step from caring about them to actually spending time with people. She always felt like she had somewhere else she should be.

Well, today would be a small move in the right direction. Sara and Maia had met in college, and they’d more-or-less been friends ever since. They met up at the campus coffee shop whenever they could, and when they both left college that had just meant moving to an inner-city coffee place instead.

And it was purely a coincidence that she needed personal advice, and Sara was the only person she felt like she could trust. That was just a minor detail.

Sara sipped her coffee slowly, and gazed over it at Maia, considering her. She probably knew something was up, she generally did.

“So what’s up?”

She shrugged and toyed with her own drink, a green tea that she'd already half-finished. “Not a whole lot, what’s up with you?”

“Come on Maia, don’t give me that.” Sara was rolling her eyes. “You never come and get coffee with me unless you need advice. Which is, you know, sort of flattering I guess, but don’t try to pretend you came here without an agenda.”

Busted.

“Okay, so there is something I need some advice on.”

“Oh yeah? You looking for my expertise in mergers and acquisitions? Or have you suddenly become interested in becoming a psychiatrist?”

“Don’t tease. You know why you’re good to talk to.”

“It’s because I’m just so clever,” said Sara, affecting a look of great wisdom.

“Exactly. You’re the cleverest person I know. Smart, beautiful, insightful…”

“Alright, alright.” She waved a hand dismissively. “My ego is fine. What’s wrong?”

“Okay. So, it’s at work…there’s this guy.”

Sara’s eyes were suddenly huge. “Oh MY god you have a crush! You have a crush on someone at work, this is amazing! I want details, name, looks, everything! Aaah!”

Maia was pretty sure she wasn’t blushing. “Keep it down.”

Sara bit her lip, but she was clearly only just holding a lid on it. “Sorry.”

“And I am not giving you his name.”

“Is it some big secret? Oh, of course! Are you his boss? Isn’t that, like, unethical?”

“Sara. Please. I’m not his boss.” Dammit, she shouldn’t have used the ‘work’ excuse. At her day job, she was pretty much everybody’s boss. “It’s just…” God, how to explain. She was supposed to be good at this stuff! “Okay, he’s an equal, so that’s fine. He’s really more like a consultant.” That was sort of true, right? In that she asked his opinion on tactical matters? Sure, true enough. “He’s about my age, maybe a couple of years older but nothing weird, it’s just…it’s work, you know?”

Sara nodded sagely. “Yeah, that can make things awkward. So, you’ve told me why it can’t possibly happen – why do you want it to?”

“We…click. We talk, he gets me. And I think I get him in a way most people don’t, as well. We’ve been spending heaps of time working together recently,” trying to find out what was going on after the Progeny disaster, but that was going to stay unsaid, her company wasn’t precisely in the business of analysing interstellar threats to life on earth, “and…I don’t know, I think I feel something.” Plus, his shoulders.

Sara laughed, and she suddenly realised she’d said that last bit aloud. Now she could definitely feel herself blushing. “He’s pretty built, then?”

“He used to be in the army. I guess that means he works out a lot.”

Now Sara was nodding, a slightly hungry look to her smile. “Yeah, soldiers are yummy.”

“Yummier than paralegals?”

Sara grinned. “Don’t get me wrong, Eduardo’s perfect in every way, but I do like a muscular set of shoulders. They’re nice to look at. And to hang onto.”

“Sara!”

Her friend laughed. “I always forget you’re so young and innocent. Don’t tell me that you haven’t been thinking about it.”

She hadn’t, she definitely hadn’t. She especially hadn’t been thinking about his skin, and how good it looked, how it would feel to run her hands over his shoulders, press up against his firm chest, drag gentle fingers down his abs and…

Sara was giggling at her expression. “Oh, you’ve got it _bad_ , little Maia. You are _screwed_.”

“Thanks so much.”

“Don’t be like that, it’ll be okay. Look, you wanted my advice, right?” Maia just nodded. “Okay. So it’s a weird situation and you’re not sure if you even want to pursue anything, because of the whole work thing. It feels like a big risk, right?” Another little nod. “Now, do you know what he feels about all of this?”

“I don’t really know. I mean he’s been spending as much time with me as I have with him, I think we have fun. But I’m not super great at understanding people, so I’m not sure.”

“I think you should trust yourself a little more. You’re clever, you know? If you think he’s into you, you’re probably right. And there’s every chance that he’s worrying about the same stuff as you are, which from what you’re telling me mostly sounds like you’re both scared of being rejected and making it awkward. So my advice is: suck it up, tell him how you feel.”

She frowned. “I don’t know…”

Sara raised a finger. “Uh uh. I know you’re a secretive person, and whatever, that’s fine. But if you hide your feelings from this guy, however hot you might be he’s eventually gonna move on to someone else, and I can’t imagine anything that would make it more awkward between you than that. Pining after people is the worst. If you want him, you have to make it happen.”

“Right.” One deep breath. “You’re right. If I want anything to happen, it’s on me.”

“Atta girl.” Sara took a long, satisfied drink of her coffee.

Her phone buzzed, and she glanced down for a moment, and the screen told her: Tyler.

Damn her blush! Honestly, she was normally good at deception. “Sorry, I have to check this.”

It said: _Trouble in your area. Likely BB. How soon can you be here?_

“I’m so sorry Sara, something’s come up. Work stuff. I have to go.”

Sara looked like a Cheshire cat. “Uh huh. Nice. Go get ‘im, girl.

Maia threw a few bills on the table and rushed off, texting as she went. _On my way now. Looking forward to it._


End file.
